Basic scientific research in Canada is under serious pressure, concludes a new report from CAUT.

CAUT’s “Federal Funding of Basic Research” report found that funding for basic research programs nation­wide has declined overall in recent years, as the Conservative government put in place new policy directions for science and technology. A re-direction characterized by increasingly targeting new funding to “projects that appear to offer the promise of immediate com­mer­cial value.”

Adjusted for inflation, granting council funding has been in serious decline since 2007–2008. Base funding for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada declined by more than 10 per cent, while core support for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is down by 6.4 per cent and down 7.5 per cent for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

According to the report, the government’s reorientation finds its clearest expression in the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council’s shift in funding priorities from basic research to fettered research initiatives. In 2008–2009, NSERC spent $121 million more in inflation-adjusted dollars for its discovery grant program than it did on targeted R&D initiatives. By 2012, budgetary allocations for academic-industry partnerships and commer­cialization surpassed that for discovery grants by almost $40 million.

The report noted that millions of scarce research dollars are being redirected towards newly-created boutique programs, such as NSERC’s engage grant, a commercially-driven research partnership program launched in 2009 to support “short-term research and development projects aimed at addressing a company-specific problem.” The program operates without a peer review process, while success rates for the $25,000 grant are virtually guaranteed at just over 90 per cent since inception.

The impacts of underfunding and undervaluing basic research mean that thousands of important research projects are unable to be pursued due to lack of resources, said the report, even as they merited funding from a scientific perspective.

“Lack of funding is by far the biggest impediment to the pursuit of basic scientific research in this country,” said CAUT executive director James Turk. “It is closely followed by politicians’ failure to recognize that basic research, done to advance knowledge with no commercial application in view, is the foundation for almost all scientific advancement and almost all subsequent commercial and social applications.”

In what he labelled as a “first step,” Turk said the government must restore significant investments in funding for the granting councils, and leave it to the scientific community to identify scientific priorities.

“More than 100 years of history clearly show that countries do best when research priorities are set by the scientific community, not by politicians or industry,” he said.